One of the factors in the sharp rise in population during the 18th century in China was the introduction of new crops from the Americas such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize and the peanut. High in calories, these crops could also be grown in poor soil or on terrain unsuitable to rice or grain cultivation.
An article today in the Shanghai Daily looks to change this narrative and suggests that the peanut, in fact, has a much longer history in China.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS in China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province said the crops they have unearthed from an emperor’s mausoleum dating back more than 2,100 years were identified as carbonized peanuts, a discovery that can rewrite the nut’s history.The finding in the tomb belonging to the Western Han Dynasty’s (206 BC-AD24) fourth emperor Liu Qi and his wife, all but destroys the previous belief that peanuts were first introduced to China in the 16th century from South America, China News Service reported today.
The article however does not explain how a the legume, Arachis hypogaea, whose wild ancestors are native to Peru wound up in Han dynasty China or why China stopped cultivating the plant for eighteen centuries, but it’s Xinhua, so I’m figuring the details probably don’t really matter much and hey, anything’s possible.
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Photo top right: A photograph of the mystery legume, presumed to be a peanut, from the archaeological site. Photo from CCTV.
12 responses so far ↓
1 chriswaugh_bj // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:21 am
One thing that puzzled me about Yanqing County is that back in the Warring States it was very firmly on the grasslands side of the divide and its connections to Mongolia were stronger than its connections to the Central Plains until surprisingly recently. I guess these new crops provide an answer. My wife told me that they grow corn instead of wheat in her village because of the lack of water. Potatoes and kumara (the real word for sweet potato) are also very common.
I don’t know what I’m talking about, just musing out loud, not even really thinking, ignore me. But it did strike me that these new crops could’ve made agriculture suddenly much more viable in the higher, drier parts of the Yanqing basin than previously.
2 花崗齋之愚公 // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:35 am
Chris,
First off, my condolences on the All Blacks.
Second, that’s exactly what happened. These new crops allowed planting in areas that had previously been considered unsuitable for agriculture. It was a real boon for villages–and it sounds like Yanqing was one–in marginal areas and also encouraged settlement into new areas that had never before been farmed.
I enjoyed your posts on Yanqing. I’m interested in learning more about it.
3 ChinaHawk // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Hmm… I thought Yanqing County of Beijing would be firmly under the Yan kingdom of Warring States consider that it’s right next to their capital. The very first time the area would have been conquered by nomad in recorded history would’ve be invasion of Murong Xianbei after Jing dynasty collapsed 500 years later. How was it that it was very firmly on the grasslands side? Is there another Yanqing county? I am intrigued
4 ChinaHawk // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:28 pm
speaking of Gongbaojiding without peanut, I wonder what Sichuan cuisine was like in the pre-Chili Pepper days.
5 花崗齋之愚公 // Oct 11, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Chinahawk,
I suppose Chris could answer your question better than I could, but keeping in mind that both the Great Wall and Inner Mongolia are close enough to Beijing to be considered daytrip and weekend getaway respectively, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility that villages such as Yanqing could have been in this unusual position.
Also, let’s not assume just because the village was in the state of Yan during the Warring States period that it would thus be Chinese for ever after. Many places in North China came and went, were conquered and reconquered by any number of peoples.
Chris, can you shed any light on this in terms of Yanqing?
6 ChinaHawk // Oct 11, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Jottings,
Actually once an area has been under control by a Chinese polity, it’s part of motherland from time memorial.
Wait, you mean Yan is Chinese? so their “Hu” and “Xiongnu” subjects are also Chinese? Wei Man” from Yan established Wiman Joseon in Korea. Does that make
Wiman Joseon Chinese?
Li Ling surrendered to Xiongnu (匈奴) for which act Sima Qian lost his balls. Is Li Ling Chinese? His descendants Chinese? Yenisei Kirghiz leader claim descend from Li Ling during Tang dynasty. Does that make Yenisei Kirghiz Chinese?
Manchu in 1600 are not considered Chinese what about in 2008? 1908? 1838? Descendants of Arab sailors in Fujian now called Hui, are they Chinese? Is Zheng He, 7th generation Hui Muslim in Yunnan, Chinese?
Ah, hah and you suggest that Inner Mongolia and nomads in general are not Chinese, you sly splittist you.
7 chriswaugh_bj // Oct 11, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Chinahawk, according to the information I found over the summer, Yanqing was inhabited by the Shanrong people, a branch of the Xiongnu, during the warring states, and the Jundushan that separate Yanqing from the plains were pretty much the dividing line between Yan in the south and the Shanrong in the north. Also, apparently the Shanrong spent a fair bit of time raiding Yan, to the point where the Yan were forced to move the capital further away.
And remember, the Great Wall runs along the southern edge of Yanqing County, meaning that for long periods of history, Yanqing was definitely outside the empire. I don’t mean to be a splittist, sly or otherwise, though- a lot of Shanrong relics dug up in Yanqing show evidence of cultural exchange with the settled folks of the Central Plains.
I collected all the information I could find on the history of Yanqing and wrote it up at this page:
http://wangbo.blogtown.co.nz/history-of-yanqing-county/
Actually, Chinahawk, Jeremiah, anybody, if you have any more information about the history of Yanqing, or if you find any mistakes on that page of mine, let me know.
And the All Blacks… Well, that’s just bloody typical of them, as are the rather childish displays of public grieving back in Aotearoa, and the surge in “business” for the police and women’s refuges. Sometimes it’s better to be an expat Kiwi. Scary thing is, the next world cup is in Kiwiland.
8 ChinaHawk // Oct 11, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Wow Chris, That’s pretty impressive history of Yanqing. Thanks for that. I wonder if Yanqing County keep an official county history document, I seem to recall many Chinese counties have county history written during each administration (or maybe only rich countie could do this?).
9 花崗齋之愚公 // Oct 12, 2007 at 12:01 am
China Hawk,
I seem to think that most counties had a gazetteer (地方志）compiled on a (semi)regular basis under the direction of local officials and local notables. Consulting my copy of Wilkinson, there are about 8000 local gazetteers still extant, the vast majority, obviously, from the Qing. They are fabulous resources for finding out information about a particular place.
For a variety of reasons, there tend to be more extant from the southern part of China than from the north.
10 無名 - wu ming // Oct 12, 2007 at 11:53 am
i suspect pre-pepper sichuan cuisine was really heavy on the huajiao, and korean cuisine must have been variatiopns on the theme of pickles.
brian dott, a history prof. at whitman university, is currently working on a history of peppers in china, although i don’t think he has anything published yet.
11 花崗齋之愚公 // Oct 12, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Wu Ming,
I’m truly fascinated with this history through food trend. Our colleague Robbie is doing/just did a fabulous dissertation on Mexican political history as seen through the story of bread and bakeries in that country. Now peppers in China…alright, I’m getting hungry, better stop.
12 chriswaugh_bj // Oct 13, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Chinahawk: Thanks, but that was just a very amateur attempt at research based entirely on what I could find online. I would love to find more information. I would also love to sit down with my in-laws and here what they have to say. As it is, I’ve only heard hints of some pretty fascinating stories- things like being told I’m not allowed to climb a certain mountain behind the village because a lot of people died up there during the anti-japanese war and it’s been haunted ever since, with an unusually large number of people falling off that mountain, or a village just five li that got “sanguang’ed”.
Actually, I’d love to find one of these gazettes or, in fact, any book on the history of Yanqing, official or otherwise. Of course, it’d be very slow reading, but I’m sure there’s a lot more great stories to be told about that place.
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